1940 - part 2 - Vredenburgh.org

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WILLIAM CARNIE. JR •• * reports
War Demands Boos~
ALTHOUGH domestic quicksilver prt>duetion
has more than doubled in the
last year, United .States mine operators
must increase their output still further if
they are to meet the demand created by
Europe's war.
Basis for this prediction is the fact that.
with Spain apparently falling in line with
the Axis powers, United States mines probably
will be called upon to supply not only
heightened domestic needs, but those of the
British empire as well.
During the 10 years ending with 1937,
consumption of quicksilver in the United
States was approximately 28,000 flasks annually,
and judging by the experience of
the last World War, a step-up of ahout onethird
in domestic needs can be expected
during the national preparedness program.
According to U. S. Bureau of Mines figures,
the consumption of quicksilver in the
United States during the war years of
1917 and 1918 jumped 38 per cent over
the preceding five-year average.
Virtually without quicksilver resources
of her own, the British empire has in recent
years relied heavily upon imports from
Spain. During 1936, 1937, and 1938, Spanish
exports to the United Kingdom totaled
116,679 flasks, an average of 38,893 flasks
a year. Loss of this source of supply must
mean that Britain can look only to the
United States for her quicksilver needs.
Normally, Spain and Itsly have produced
roughly 70 per cent of the world's quicksilver
supply while the United Ststes ranked
third, contributing about 15 per cent of the
world tots!, In 1938, the Italian quicksilver
output was 66,719 flasks j Spain produced
an estimated 40,000 flasks; and
United Ststes production was only 17,991
flasks. Mexico ranked fourth with 8,619
flasks; the Russian yield, for which figures
are not available, probably was about the
same as Mexico's ; and other production
throughout the world was relatively unimportsnt.
During the last year, however, the U. S.
picture has changed completely. Production
figures have followed closely the skyrocketing
prices which, by mid-October,
had nsen to $176 a flask as compared to
slightly more than $70 a flask in 1938.
With numerous new properties going on
production and producing mines stepping
up operations, the domestic output has shot
upward. Current estimates for " the 1940
U. S. yield are 38,000 flasks.
C li)~" individual producer of quicksilver
in the United Ststes is H. W. Gould and
Company, 1000 Mills Building, San Franeisco,
which operates six mines in California
and Nevada, now accounting for approximately
one-third of the total domestic
output. The New Idria mine in San Benito
*Sem Frcmciaco, CalUornict.
Iinprovemenls in nunmg methods
and recovery equipment have
made possible the treatment of
ore~ with an average quicksilver
content 01 0.4 per cent. compared
to the 10 per cent ore treated in the
bonanza days 01 quicksilver mining
in the United States. Esti·
mates lor 1940 indicate that U. S.
production 01 quicksilver this year
will more than double that 01 1938.
County, California, largest of the Gould
group, rates as the greatest single producing
property in the western hemisphere,
yielding an average of 550 flasks a month.
Here, 250 men are employed under the direction
of Superintendent C. Hyde Lewis,
and the two special rotary furnaces of the
recovery plant are burning 450 tons of ore
daily. In additiorl to newly mined ore, a
large tonnage of material from the dumps
A general view of the upper camp at the
New Idria mine in San Benito County, California,
operated by H. W . Gould and Company.
All ore mined from the .. lory hole
or from tunnels at the upper camp is transported
by means of • gravity-operated cable
tram to the lower camp where the reduction
\lnit i, situated.
Quicksilver Ou~pu~
of early-day operators is being treated.
Henry "Gould, company president, reports
that with present equipment a recovery of
98 per cent is possible. Pioneer quicksilver
miners were fortunate to recover more
than 60 per cent of their values.
Development work at New Idria is being
pressed in the No. 10 tunnel which, Gould
states, will be opened for a distance of
7,000 feet.
Other Gould properties in California include
the Helen mine in Lake County
where lessees are busy reopening the old
underground workings preparatory to placing
it on production early next year; the
Oat Hill mine in Napa County, now producing
from 125 to 150 flasks a month;
and the Klau mine in San Luis Obispo
County, where 40 men are employed and
the 176-foot shaft is being deepened to
400 feet.
Completing the Gould group are the Wild
Horse quicksilver and Mt. Tobin mine in
Nevada. Both properties are small-scale
operations, each handling 20 tons of ore
daily.
Probably the most important new development
in the nation is the reopening of
the famed New Almaden mine in Santa
Clara County, California. Work at the
property, once the fourth largest producing
mine in the world, was started in 1939
by the New Almaden Corporation of PhIladelphia,
Pennsylvania. C. N. Schuette, 533
Call Building, San Francisco, is engineer
in charge. Although only a email amount
of surface work has been done in recent
years, the New Almaden has produced
more than one million flasks of quicksilver,
or about half the total production of California,
during its history.
UST what will be the maximum yield
J attained by U. S. mines during the war
emergency is still unpredictable, but it is
interesting to note that this country once
led the world in quicksilver production.
The top domestic output was reached in
1877 when the nation's mines turned out
some 80,000 flasks, or about two-thirds of
the world's total.
Drastic curtailment of U. S. production
was brought about by a rapid falling off
of values in the major quicksilver areas.
In the early 1890's, the average ore mined
in this country contained only about 1 per
cent quicksilver instead of up to 10 per
cent as it had during the peak days of the
1870's. Bureau of Mines figures now give
the average content as 0.4 per cent.
Improvements in mining methods and recovery
equipment have largely offset this
drop in values, but low prices kept production
down during the last 20 years. Spanish
and Italian mines, oper:l.ting with cheap
labor on reasonably high-grade ore, (Spanish
ore runs 5 to 7 per cent quicksilver), "
rHE 'MINING JOURNAL tor.,vOVEMBER 15, 1940
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